


promise

by queenundisputed



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-19
Updated: 2014-07-19
Packaged: 2018-02-09 12:44:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1983492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenundisputed/pseuds/queenundisputed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Killian ends up in the hospital, and Emma ends up by his bedside.</p>
            </blockquote>





	promise

It had only been hours before that she'd kissed him, and now she was watching over his body, hoping that he would open his damnably blue eyes, look at her, and say something inappropriate because anything-- _anything_ \--would be better than the faint sounds of labored breathing and the beeping of hospital machines.

He was going to be fine. He had to be fine.

Oh god, what if he wasn't fine?

She raked her fingers through her hair, shooting a quick glance at the bandages wrapping around his chest. He just had to jump in front of the icicle projectile because he was a stupid pirate with some kind of screwed up death wish, wasn't he? And he smelled funny, drank too much, hurt people, tried to kill more than one person in the town she was supposed to protect, his accent was the complete opposite of a turn on and it was worse when he was drunk which he probably was half the time, and she hated his foul mouth even more than half the time.

But...

Well, he'd grown on her, and as much as she hated what came out of his mouth most of the time, he really did know how to use it when he put his mind to it. Her hand drifted up toward her lips as the memory surfaced, but she left it hanging in midair, the motion aborted because he'd moved. She'd seen it. 

He groaned and opened his eyes. 

"About time, pirate. What do you think this is, a hotel? There are people out there who actually need these beds, you know," she says, the words falling like dominoes out of her mouth once they get started. Her eyes are wide, and she reaches out for his hand while he blinks at her, confusion written on his face.

"Swan?"

"Yeah," she says, quietly. "It's me."

"You're alive," he sighs, and she sees him relax on the clean white sheets of the hospital bed.

It makes her angry again. "What do you mean, I'm alive? What about you? What the hell were you thinking, jumping in front of that crazy woman's ice weapon anyway?"

"You, love," he says, "I was thinking about you."

He squeezes her hand and smiles. "Think you could stop yelling at me for just a moment?  
I've quite forgotten why I bothered to save you in the first place with all the noise."

Her mouth drops open, and she tightens her hold on his hand. "You are the most--"

"Amazing pirate you've ever met? Yes, I know."

"Just because you're in a hospital bed does not mean I won't lock you up for harassment."

"Oh, cuffs again, love? You really are making a habit of that, but if it is what brings you pleasure then who am I to stop you?"

"Killian," she says, and he looks at her, all humor gone from his gaze. 

"I'm still here, Emma. I'm not going to leave you," he says. 

"That's not what I was--"

"It's what you were thinking though, isn't it?"

She doesn't say anything. 

"Luck was with us, however, and it is you by my bedside as opposed to the reverse. Can you imagine? At least a hundred more years devoted to getting revenge against the monster that dared to harm a hair on your golden head would be in my future, and I must say, I'm quite tired of that life."

"Really? So you haven't been working on a new way to go behind everyone's back to get at Gold?"

"Surprisingly, no," he replies, and he screws his face up so terribly that she knows that he is just as surprised as she is at that development. 

He looks over at her, mouth quirking up into a smirk that she is becoming very familiar with. "Perhaps you are more of a distraction that I had at first anticipated, Swan."

She narrows her eyes at him and tries to yank her hand back out of his grasp. He holds her rather tightly in his grip though, and she settles on glaring at him fiercely instead.

"Trying to run away, Swan? Pity. I was rather hoping you'd allow me to make you a permanent distraction," he says, lightly, but there's something in his gaze that causes her to gape at him in what she is sure is an unattractive manner. 

He laughs softly, his thumb caressing her skin. "What do you say to forever, Swan?"

"Don't make promises you can't keep, Hook," she whispers back to him. 

"Yes, I suppose I was rather rubbish at keeping my last promise, wasn't I? But you can't say I didn't try my damnedest," he says.

“This isn’t the time for this,” she says, looking away from him, her hair falling across her face. 

“When is it ever?” he says, and she sees him try to move out of the corner of her eye. He winces before falling back to the bed with an audible oomph, and she is out of her chair with her hand on his shoulder to restrain him before he has the chance to go for round two of ‘trying to get out of the hospital bed because he’s an idiot who wants to aggravate an open wound in the middle of his chest that almost killed him’. 

“Stay in bed, Hook,” she says, going for menacing but probably only hitting pleading. 

He smirks at her. “Only trying to get your attention, love.”

“You,” she says as she falls back into her chair, “are incredibly annoying. Anyone ever tell you that?”

“They have now,” he says. 

“Well, I suppose you’ll be hearing it more often then,” she says, ducking her head and looking at her hands.

“Is that a promise, love?” 

“Don’t ask me that,” she says, not daring to look up from her hands. 

“Okay,” he says, and she does look up then. He’s closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the flat hospital pillows. 

“Killian?”

“Hmmm?”

“Ask me again some other time, okay?”

He opens his eyes then, smiles at her, and he reaches out for her hand. 

“I promise,” he says. “I will.”

**Author's Note:**

> Just a quick little ficlet (unbeta'ed, sorry Shannen) because I was in the mood, and I am procrastinating on Remnant's final chapter as well as school work. Let me know what you think!


End file.
